120 jobs in pipeline as Aberdeen energy services venture launches with twin deals

Up to 120 jobs are likely to be created following the launch of a new Aberdeen-headquartered service provider to the global energy sector.

Aurora Energy Services is being rolled out with the twin acquisitions of two long-established North-east businesses - Huntly-based offshore services and fabrication company R&M Engineering and rope access and training specialist Inverness Access Training Services (IATS). All jobs at the two businesses have been secured and in the next 12 months Aurora expects to increase its current headcount of around 80 to 200 as it rolls out a programme of “strategic acquisitions” and invests more capital in organic growth.

Aurora’s business plan is to create a £100 million turnover international energy services provider over the next five years by continuing to provide services to oil and gas, and in parallel driving forward with the energy transition by targeting the wind, solar, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, pumped hydro and waste-to-energy sectors.

Aurora is owned by energy sector serial entrepreneurs Doug Duguid and Michael Buchan, through their I7V Renewables investment fund. Capital has also been invested by senior management, including Alan McLean - who has been with R&M for more than 30 years. They are joined by Alan Bailey, who has been appointed as the new managing director at R&M, and who previously worked alongside Duguid and Buchan at EnerMech for 12 years.

Duguid, I7V Renewables chief executive, said: “Aurora Energy Services is structuring its operational capability to deliver an integrated service to the renewables industry. It is clear from conversations with wind farm developers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that there is some frustration with having to manage the various interfaces between different contractors, and the increased costs and inefficiency that this causes.”

R&M Engineering is a major fabricator of pipework and structural steelwork in the North-east and has provided fabrication services to the oil and gas industry for more than four decades. The business has already started the transition to renewables, winning a number of offshore wind contracts, and its 6.5-acre Huntly site and highly skilled workforce are seen as central to Aurora’s expansion plans. Meanwhile, IATS co-owners Andy and Lorna Johnston will remain with the new entity and have also invested in Aurora.

The new group is investing in developing a full design engineering function at its headquarters in Aberdeen, which will incorporate a digital capability for customers to access real time progress on all aspects of the work Aurora is carrying out for them. The design engineering team will support the Inverness renewables service centre and the Huntly fabrication facilities, while further expansion will take place in Blyth and Great Yarmouth over the next few months.

Duguid added: “We see tremendous value in transitioning Scotland’s energy base and workforce towards more renewable sources, and at the same time utilising the immense offshore knowledge and experience from Scotland’s oil and gas industry, and applying this to the new energy sources which will keep Scotland at the leading edge of energy production.”

The values of both acquisition deals have not been disclosed.